The alibis for the Clippers’ wretched 2007-2008 season largely check out.Few – save Donald T. Sterling -- expected a Clipper team without Elton Brand to compete for more than 30 wins in a brutal Western Conference.This disclaimer, however, doesn’t mitigate the fact that the Los Angeles Clippers are currently a Bad Basketball Team.What makes them bad?Well, they lose a lot of basketball games – many of them by ungodly margins.But there’s more to it than that.

While every bad basketball team is bad in its own way, there are some general features you’ll find on many a lousy roster. While no single one -- or even two or three -- of these red flags guarantees outright futility, if you examine the rosters of the league's worst teams, you're likely to spot some patterns:

“Journeyman” Point Guards:Look at the starting lineup of a bad basketball team and you’ll find the likes of Rick Brunson, Brevin Knight, Jeff McInnis, Tyronn Lue, Speedy Claxton penciled in at the PG slot.Dan Dickau is another good illustration.And Smush Parker is destined to become the archetypal bounce-around PG, if he isn’t already. More times than not [Jeff McInnis would qualify as a ‘not’], these are good guys.I mean, who -- besides Isiah Thomas -- wants an ineffectual player who is also an asshole on the roster?Take Dickau: He exerts himself every night, but he’s being asked to do something he just can’t: Be an NBA point guard.

Guys Who Are Missing Key Attributes That Their Positions Demand:Power forwards who can’t post.Point guards who can’t defend the pick-and-roll.Shooting guards who can’t shoot.Centers who can’t challenge shots at the rim and get pushed around on the block.Wing players with low basketball IQs.

Lots of Undersized Players: The other day I alluded to the Clippers’ starting post tandem of Al Thornton and Josh Powell against Miami.Both guys could fairly be classified as small forwards, though Powell has done a decent job defending manageable PFs.When you field an excessively small lineup, too many bad things can happen on the boards and in the post – and also on the perimeter where a big opposing shooting guard with a quick release can sink shots all night over your 5’ 10” defender.

No One Who Can Pass the Ball: This is patently obvious.But watch closely and you’ll see just how much less an opposing defense has to work against a team that can’t pass.When the Clippers are static in the halfcourt, it’s not because Minnesota’s zone or Miami’s slugs are blanketing the floor. It’s because every entry pass is an adventure, and any basic motion set that features a cutter is wishful thinking.The result?Possession after possession of isolations which, after a while, even the worst NBA teams can sniff out.

Not Able to Convert Easy Buckets: The best example of this is an inability to run the break.But there are others: The failure to exploit a quick momentary mismatch before a backpedaling opposing defense gets fully set; second chance points generated off offensive boards [Clips rank 28th in ORR].

Both Season-Long and Intermittent Injuries:A team can generally adjust to an advanced-notice season long injury [think PHX in 2005-2006, or even Washington this season].And almost all NBA teams can cope with a series of four to five game absences, but the combination of the two is fatal.What’s particularly debilitating about a depleted, banged-up squad is the inability to hold productive 5-on-5 practices.When you find yourself asking, “Why do these guys look like they’ve never played together?”Chance are…they haven’t.

I was going to say "lack of hustle," but I believe there are a lot of awful teams -- including the Clippers -- that play 48 minutes of gritty basketball. Shitty teams are shitty due to fundamental shortcomings like the ones outlined above. Apart from this list, what are some other characteristic flaws of bad NBA teams?

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

That's a great summary of 'our' woeful year. And a big reason why I'm willing to be forgiving and will be on board 100% next year as usual. I don't expect any quick fix. Even if the next C.Paul or similar (hell, i'll take some Beno Udrih right about now)falls in our lap in the draft and EB comes storming back to what he was, the west is ferocious and it's gonna be no easy task making even the 8 seed for the next few years. I love the game and will stay plugged in and looking for improvement.
MD sr. has had some questionable moments and I'm on the fence post with that most of the time. I can't blame him for not being able to wave a magic wand and fix the mess. But, sometimes a little change will do you good. I guess it's only fair to give the guy a year with EB back and see if there's some progress.
I'm transferring back closer to L.A. shortly and hope to even be posted up in Ventura County by next fall and will be hitting many games next year regardless.
My hopes are that this team can at least return to the level of where the 8th seed is a possibility going into April.
Onward Clipper soldiers!!!

Give me a break, we have one guy on the team with a PER over 20 and a Roland Rating over 4.........but people still can't resist taking shots at him. Enough already.......I guess some people just don't know what they've got, till its gone.

Yeah, total cheap shot and uncalled for and totally untrue. Yeah, maybe the guy misses some of the continuous and overdone "rotations" and isn't the world's greatest defender, but what good offensive player other than Kobe is a great defensive player. This doesn't make someone have "low basketball IQ", whatever that is. How about teams that are bad have bad coaches that make bad game time decisions and bad player management decisions like starting a scrub over your best player to make a "point," of what exactly we don't know. How about a coach who poisoned the season last year by creating ridiculous problems for the team?

Why is the horrible coach not on the list? Oh, because Clipperblog is such a fan of all the complex coreographed defensive rotations and the stagnant unimaginative offense?

How many players have been injured this season? Okay, now how the fuck does that account for 29 different starting lineups?

That suggests the coach has no idea what he's doing and is EXPERIMENTING way too much. It's no wonder players are speaking out about the lack of team chemistry and the confusion about who's playing at what moment.

Now Smush is signed, we're going to see even more new lineups. Ridiculous.

Ya Mike, I agree with you dude..clipperblog's analysis is almost complete and correct. The fact that he's missing MD short-coming's, and how he's adversely affected the success of the team, gives me the appearance that he's just another apologist for MD and has lost some credibility with me.

Corey's low hoops IQ doesn't only expose itself on the defensive end. You can count on him once a game just crashing into a defender for an offensive foul and turnover. In any sort of clutch situation you can depend on him trying to draw an impossible foul instead of at least trying to hit a shot. I mean Thornton has already taken that job away from him. A rookie! He also appears largely unable to correlate the game situation with what his individual offensive goal should be.

That's just offense. I won't even bother to mention his lack of an idea how to hedge for the lane and still be able to close out to contest the corner 3. Or a lack of understanding about when is a good time to switch on defense. Well I guess I just did mention them.

But yeah, dude gets 20 points in the first half of most every game. Its a shame the way he seems to disappear for the second though.

If you guys disagree with KA so consistently, why do you keep coming here? Have you guys checked out firedunleavy.com? Its chalk full of great content and its obviously managed by a mature and not at all unhinged individual.

It's "chock full" I belief. Chalk has nothing to do with it. I've watched Corey on defense closely, something that I suggest some of the haters should do without their hate clouding their judgment, and he hedges just fine and closes out just fine. He plays defense at least as well as all the other Clippers that I have seen on the floor this year.

Oh, and sometimes when you take the ball to the hoop you are going to get an offensive foul. I thought everyone knew this, but apparently not. Corey looks to finish a lot more this year, rather than just trying to draw the foul. The vaunted Clipper announcers, who have been doing a much better job lately (nary a mention of how great Ross is) even have stated as much on multiple occassions.

Corey's basketball IQ has improved over the last several years, but he's not exactly a member of the basketball version of Mensa. This was glaringly evident as recent as last Saturday's game against Minnesota when he inexplicably passed up the 3 to take the 2 at the end of the game down 3. Corey does a lot of things well, and he's cut down on the uncontrolled drives to the hoop that resulted in many offensive fouls/turnovers earlier in his career. That said, he's not what you'd call a "heady player."

Hmmm...It takes alot of balls to make an anonymous post saying someone is a moran, presumably John R. Unlike you, I've invited you several times to meet me in person to discuss if you have such a problem with me, but you'd rather hide behing your keyboard, you complete coward and loser.

moron..moran..who gives a rip haha. Especially when referring to John R or one of his sheepishly brave online clipperblog aliases.

My point on Kevin's latest post here is I think he broke down much of the reason the Clips are where we are, just not all of it. I would have added that MD must also to be held accountable for his role in the Clips sucking as bad as they have the past 2 seasons as well. There's certainly droves of support info.

The fact of the matter still remains that MD has yet to show that he has the cognitive ability to get the team playing to it's potential. It continues to seem to me that the team has tuned him out after the collapse in the 05-06 Playoffs, and MD has been chasing his tail since, trying to figure things out.

The team is going to give him another year, unfortunately, given his contract situation.

We must now hope that the Clips front office can keep EB and maybe Maggs here along with a healthy Shaun, perhaps a free agent signing, and new draft pick to go into next season with. That's alot to wish for, but it is what it is.

John R's comment
"I mean Thornton has already taken that job away from him. A rookie!"

They're just giving Al the ball as much as possible to see him develop since the season is over. Dunleavy only started playing him once the season was mathmatically over.
And thanks for the comment about the website. Hopefully I'll be able to shut it down soon. I really don't want to spend much time managing a website that shouldn't exist.

I dont think that any of the Maggette "detractors" think he's a terrible player. I mean he drops 20 a game without even blinking. He's even managed to make some 3's this year. He doesnt give as many charges as he has in the past. And I say-- what took so long? (Contract year? hmmmm)

The truth is, for the $10 million a year that he will command next year, I think the Clippers can do better. He's too one-dimensional to be the 2nd best player on a struggling team.

When he goes to a new team, they will love his tenacity and grit. I hope for his sake it's a good team that is able to absorb his main weaknesses...clutch scoring and terrible decision making when it counts.

Nash/Kidd would have made this guy a fake one-time all-star ala Magloire, Okur, etc...

I always find that those who go out of their way to rip Maggette when he's one of the only players to show up this year are just ridiculous myopic fools who do not understand the game of basketball. It must be sad to go through life like that.

First off, Smush Parker deserves his own category. If your team requires the services of Smush, it not only says that your team is woefully deficient at the point guard position but also that your management is out of solutions, has no plan and is possibly a poor judge of talent.

Also, this one is obvious: No all-stars current or former.

If your team doesn't have a single active player that's ever been an all-star, then chances are your team sucks because either a) they're rebuilding around a core of young players or b) your team is the Clippers.